I do plenty of interviews where the topic at hand is near and dear to my heart and I could talk all day off the top of my head. And then there are other interviews which take me far outside of my comfort zone, and for which I labor mightily to be prepared. . . although even then, I walk into the room with a great deal of trepidation. And when those kind of interviews end up going well, I taste the very sweetest sort of success that someone in this business can taste.
I had that experience this morning when I welcomed Bosco and Steve Djurockovic into our studios. Bosco has been the head men’s basketball coach at Carthage for the past fourteen years and amassed a very impressive record- and his son Steve is one of the most spectacularly successful players in the school’s history. In fact, Steve was recently named NCAA Division III Player of the Year. . . and that’s not just for our neck of the woods, or the state of Wisconsin, or the Midwest. That’s for the whole country. Even before that had been announced, I was hungry to talk to these two guys on my program- but then when I heard that Steve had been accorded this incredible honor, it became a matter of urgency to have them on the morning show. And to my great relief and gratitude, Coach Bosco responded very quickly to my emailed invitation with a gracious YES.
But that set in motion some of the most intense preparation I have ever done for an interview. I went into Carthage’s website and pulled up all the information I could about the season just completed. I went to the Kenosha News website and read all kinds of articles about the season and Steve’s various awards. I chatted a bit with Steve’s cousin Andrew, who is one of my finest voice students, and one of Steve’s biggest fans. By the time I was done, I knew Steve’s average points per game for the season (24+) – the position his younger brother plays on the football team (quarterback) – and the score of the final game of the season for the Redmen (77-72). But still, having all of that data in my head would not have necessarily resulted in a good interview if the two of them weren’t open and forthcoming. All that I had heard about them led me to think that they would be generous and gracious with me, but still- I felt like I was utterly in their hands and that the interview would rise and fall with what they said and didn’t say.
And that’s why I am so happy to say that our conversation was everything I wanted it to be. We explored all kinds of matters related to their relationship as coach-player and father-son. . . the specifics of Steve’s greatness as a player . . . . and what made this past season so impressive. The interview pretty much purred like a well-tuned engine, and at the end I had only two good questions that were left unasked . . . To the coach: What are the differences between coaching basketball and baseball? To Steve: How do various players handle the matter of pressure in a game? And how do you handle the pressure? Aside from those questions, which got crowded out by the clock, I got to ask everything I wanted to ask- and they did a great job of sharing their heartwarming story. And if it surprised them and made them uncomfortable to be asked so many personal questions about their relationship off the court, they didn’t show it. They seemed genuinely delighted at the opportunity to talk about the wonderful life they are blessed to experience – and for long stretches of the interview, I found myself just sitting back and admiring these two and their warm, comfortable relationship. If you lined up 100 coaches who coach their own children, I cannot imagine you finding a more positive example of how well it can work than Coach Dj. and his son. They are a splendid success in every sense of the word. And it was so fun to learn a bit about how they have made it work. (One thing Coach Djurockovic said is that coaching Steve would have been so much harder if he had been more of a middle-of-the-road talent . . . where the matter of whether or not he was a starter would be a contentious one. What would have been easy is if he had been a very so-so but gung-ho player, just glad to be there- – – or a spectacular player where there could be no doubt in any teammate’s mind that he deserved to be out there. Needless to say, their scenario is the latter.)
And I have to say that in a world where too many top-rank athletes fall prey to a nasty sense of self-importance and entitlement – the biggest and absolutely center sphere of their personal universe – Steve Djurickovic is exactly the opposite. He is a soft-spoken, gentle, serious scholar/ athlete- but with the fierce heart of a warrior when it comes to the basketball court. And for all the trophies and honors which fill his shelves – including this most recent one – for him it is all about the Team. And in this day and age, that is incredibly refreshing.
So for all of those reasons and more, I walked out of that interview smiling as broadly as I have ever smiled after an interview. (And that goes for the grand opera interviews!)
pictured: the Djurockovics, immediately after our interview concluded. The interview airs Wednesday morning on WGTD 91. FM from 8:11 to 9:00. It can also be heard via our website, wgtd.org – either live or later on from the morning show archive.